Russel Wong is one of our guest contributors for our photography series, PIXELS. He has worked closely with many celebrities, featuring the likes of Zhang Ziyi, Jackie Chan and Michael Jackson. He shares the stories behind some of his photographs, and provides a glimpse into the lives of these top stars.
Upon returning from seeing fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez in New York City, I went right back to school and into my routine of meeting up with new managers and publicists in Hollywood. I had a lead to see a manager called Loree, who handled the younger stars.
We met up and she got straight to the point.
“Russel I want you to shoot this young actor by the name of Robert Downey Jr. His last movie “Less Than Zero” was amazing and he’s going to be hot! Now he has a movie coming out called ” Chaplin ” and I think you’ll be the right guy to handle him!”
“Handle him, “I thought…hmm.
The shoot was set up for 11am as Robert didn’t do early mornings – I wonder why! 11 am rolled around and no one showed up.
At 12pm I get a call.
“Is this Russel? This is Robert and I’m making my way there soon. Do you have breakfast?”
“Errr, sure Robert, we have breakfast!”
Breakfast With Iron Man
Jeff, my roommate, couldn’t believe I had to cook him breakfast but I felt it would be a good start to our shoot. I dug through my fridge and whipped up some eggs and some old left over bacon I got from an East LA Supermarket. After all, how would a guy with probably a hangover know if the bacon wasn’t fresh!
Robert then walked in at 1pm. I served him his breakfast and we had a great chat about music and clothes. Not many people know this but he’s a great musician – he released an album, plays the piano, writes and sings. He even did a duet with Sting on Ally McBeal and is also a fashionista shopaholic!
“Hey Russel, put this music on. My buddies U2 gave me this demo of their new album.”
Before I knew it, he was dancing and singing to it and playing around towards my camera. It was amazing what bacon can do! The performance from him was good and I knew I had something there.
We then set up the lights for the portrait and whilst I was doing the test shots, Robert turned to me and said, “You know what, you should be hanging out with me because I’m gonna be so big Russel!”
He was joking but there was a twinkle in his eye – he knew it and I knew it too that this was for real. There was just something about this guy!
We wrapped up the shoot and he thanked me for breakfast.
“Russel, call me and we’ll hang out like I said. I want you to meet my girlfriend too. She’s also an actress.”
Meeting His Girl
I got a call that same day from Loree.
“I have no idea what you did to him but he loved the shoot!” When I heard that I was thinking, “breakfast maybe?”
Robert and I then met up at clubs and he introduced me to all his young Hollywood actor friends, the brat pack of Hollywood – Judd Nelson and the bunch. I finally brought the prints over to Cafe Figaro on Melrose one afternoon to have coffee with him and to meet his girl.
“Russel, this is my girl Sarah Jessica Parker. I told her to shoot with you. She’s got this movie coming out with Steve Martin called LA Story.”
He told me he just bought Charlie Chaplin’s house off Sunset Blvd and I had to go see it soon. After a great time at coffee, we walked over to a boutique called Maxfield’s to get some retail therapy thanks to Robert.
“I love Japanese designers man. Yohji baby!”
With those words, he grabbed four $4000 Yohji Yamamoto suits and some $600 white shirts – I guess that’s how Hollywood shops. I was glad to hear that those prints he had still sit in his office!
What a blast with Mr Ironman and what a day to remember. Thanks for hookin a brutha up!
Photo
Shot on ASA 100 film with a Hasselblad and a Zeiss 150mm lens. Lit with an over head soft box. The white background was lit on both sides with 2 lights and overexposed by a stop to make it superwhite.
Tips
Everyone wants to shoot the big stars but do start off first with the up and coming ones as you stand a better chance to shoot and grow with them. You just don’t shoot A list Hollywood off the bat, get real!
If you can be friends and socialise with your subjects, you can get more out of it. I don’t do it with the irritating ones but only those I enjoy the company and friendship. Showing your book to an agent is not the only way to get to these people.
An introduction goes a long way. From Robert’s introductions alone, I was able to shoot 8 other young actor friends of his – bypassing their publicists and managers approval (which can be a problem). Friendship goes a long way and one last thing – give them prints!
